Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a scheduled trip by Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely on Wednesday to take part in a diplomatic dialogue in Prague, in an apparent signal of his displeasure with comments she made about American Jewry last week.
Hotovely kicked up a storm after saying in an interview with i24 that American Jews do not understand the reality of life in Israel because they do not send their children to the military or live under the threat of missile fire.
After Netanyahu threatened to fire her for the remarks, and after numerous calls by Israeli politicians and Jewish organizational leaders for him to do just that, Hotovely apologized.
Hotovely’s office said that her trip was not canceled, just postponed at the request of the Prime Minister’s Office, until 2018. Asked if the postponement was related to her comments last week, a spokeswoman for Hotovely directed that question to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The PMO had no comment.
